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IAC-03-IAA.2.1.06 Re-Engineering the Vengeance Weapons: a Memoir on Jan W.H. Uytenbogaart P.Th.L.M. van Woerkom Delft University of Technology Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology Section Engineering Mechanics 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands 54-th International Astronautical Congress 29 September – 3 October 2003 Bremen, Germany For permission to copy or republish, contact the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics AIAA, 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500 Reston, VA 20191-4344 RE-ENGINEERING THE VENGEANCE WEAPONS: A MEMOIR ON JAN W.H. UYTENBOGAART P.Th.L.M. van Woerkom Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Marine Technology Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands E-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT To study for rocket engineer, I enrolled in 1961 in the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Delft University Much has been written about the German of Technology. There professor J.M.J. Kooy taught Vengeance weapons V-1 and V-2, in particular courses in rocket dynamics and rocket propulsion. He about the design and the designers of the V-2 rocket, was also chairman of the Dutch Society for Space which was preferably seen as the first engineering (NVR), one of the well-known early co-organizers of tool for reaching space. But they were meant to be the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), and weapons of war for massive destruction of civilians member of the International Academy of Astronautics and property. Before the V-weapon offensive (IAA). Somehow I found out that Kooy had co- started, Polish underground agents had already authored a book with a certain J.W.H. Uytenbogaart on provided valuable information to the UK and so did topics of rocket dynamics and rocket propulsion with Swedish authorities. During the V-weapon chapters on the V-1 and V-2 "Vergeltung" weapons offensive, first-hand knowledge especially about V- (Vengeance weapons). The book "Ballistics of the 2 system properties, facilities, launch procedures, Future"9 had been published already in 1946. I and firing timetables became urgently needed. As managed to buy a copy from an antiquarian bookshop many V-2 firings took place on the Western coast of in 1961 at the cost of about five US dollar. Yet, who The Netherlands, the local underground intelligence really was this co-author Uytenbogaart? around The Hague was called upon by London to At that time Uytenbogaart had already retired from help investigate. the BPM ("Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij"), a The key person in the present saga is J.W.H. subsidiary of Shell. But he had retained his position of Uytenbogaart, engineer and research manager, part-time professor in fibre and textile technology at spider in a web. Results from his investigations have Delft. His office and his laboratory were in the Faculty been summarized in the book "Ballistics of the of Mechanical Engineering, where I was attending Future", which also included substantial results from some classes. I had vaguely wanted to meet him; yet theoretical investigations carried out by J.M.J. nothing came of it... Kooy. It was published in 1946. Documentation and Thirty years later, in 1991, MIT's professor Theodore interviews with surviving contemporaries created A. Postol analyzed the effectiveness of Patriot against the picture of a remarkable, quiet, unselfish, crafty Scud rockets during the Gulf War. In his first public gentleman and unassuming hero. The present paper and unsettling publication on the subject12 he relates may well be the very first one to provide somewhat how the Scud has been derived from V-2 rocket more than a glimpse of the secret life of this technology and then states that the book "Ballis tics of remarkable man. the Future" "contains a highly informed and very detailed description, including engineering drawings, 1. ON THE TRAIL: SOME PERSONAL NOTES of the V-1 and V-2 rockets...". I remember hearing later that the book had also been translated into Russian. These were the events that led to the present paper... And I learned that antiquarians in the USA were In high school I, this writer, was dreaming about offering the book for much, much money. jet-propelled aircraft and rockets, and about the Then, in 1997, a V-2 historian whose family had wonderful noise and explosions they would create in survived the bombardment of The Hague approached war. I designed them on scraps of paper and in my me. In early March of 1945 British planes had carried school agenda during classes. At the prodding of an out a massive bombardment of a central residential part uncle I even wrote a letter to Von Braun, to ask his of The Hague in an effort to destroy stored V-2 rockets opinion about a rocket design that I had put together. and their launch facilities. Through a navigation error Von Braun replied quickly and at length. I felt there were huge losses of life and material, yet no loss greatly honoured by his immediate and thorough of material related to the V-2 rockets. This man tried to interest and from then on I knew that I was going to comprehend the drama and tried to do so in part by be a rocket engineer. collecting data on launch sites, successful launches and launch failures in The Hague and surroundings3. I 1 suddenly remembered that "Ballistics of the Future" radio-controlled version of the V-2 launched at contained those data and maps. In our subsequent Peenemünde was accidentally steered into the direction conversations the question arose again: who really of southern Sweden and exploded in the air near the was Uytenbogaart? town of Bäckebo. About two tons of wreckage could Later that year I joined the Section Engineering be collected and was transferred to Stockholm. The Mechanics of the Faculty of Mechanical remains were studied and then flown to Farnborough in Engineering and Marine Technology at the Delft July 1944 for further analysis. University of Technology. It turned out that the These are apparently the three main "packages" of research group of Uytenbogaart and his successors intelligence from the field on the Vengeance weapons. had recently merged with my own new Section. One One package had been prepared before the war; the two of my new colleagues turned out to have been a other packages had been prepared during the flight- student of Uytenbogaart. Soon afterwards I also testing period and contained real data and real came into contact with some former colleagues and hardware. This gripping story is recounted in the books acquaintances of Uytenbogaart. I started searching "The Rocket Team" 11 and "The Secret War" 6. archives. There was now a thin trail in evidence, and However, what about information about V-weapons I was going to follow it – apparently "to go where from the field of combat, from the firing line itself? no one had gone before". And today I would like to Such information would naturally come slowly, in report to you about some of the facts that could be parts, and in even greater secrecy. Indeed, substantial brought to light. information on the vengeance weapons from the field during actual combat would be provided in that way, 2. EARLY SUBSTANTIAL and the central person in the web turned out to be a FIELD-INTELLIGENCE REPORTS highly respected engineer and research manager: prof.dr.ir. J.W.H. Uytenbogaart. The first substantial intelligence report reaching London from the field was the so-called "Oslo 3. V-WEAPON OFFENSIVE FROM report". It was sent by an unknown "German well- THE NETHERLANDS wisher" to the British naval attaché in Oslo in late 1939. Reference was made to many new weapons, In June 1944 the V-1 weapon offensive started. These including rocket-powered glide bombs (leading to flying bombs were being launched from ski ramps in the later V-1 "Vengeance" weapon), rockets (leading Northern France aimed at London. Launch rates grew to the later A-4, better known as the "Vengeance" during the summer. But the Allied breakout from weapon V-2) and the Peenemünde experimental Normandy effectively stopped those launches by the establishment. The report was received by British end of August. Captured documents gave also Intelligence and was studied with interest - but its additional information on the V-2 weapon and how it contents was not taken serious at that time. Could it was to be launched from massive, fixed, concrete be a ruse? And could those strange weapons be bunkers in north-west France. With Allied progress in feasible? It took time to the spring of 1943 before France the V-1 and V-2 threat to London seemed to the British started to become convinced of the have come to an end. At least, such was the Allies' objectivity of the report. hope. The second substantial intelligence report reaching Then, in the morning of September 8, 1944 the first London came from Poland. After the bombing in successful operational launch of the V-2 weapon took Peenemünde in August 1943 most V-2 flight-testing place and its target was Paris. Its mobile launch site activities were moved to the Blizna area in southern was located ten miles south of the Belgium village of Poland. There, Polish resistance militiamen were Houffalize. The rocket impacted in the city of Paris, searching for debris, be it from impact or from 180 miles away. Damage was modest. And in the (regularly occurring) airburst a few thousand feet evening of the very same day the second successful above the target area. Radio transmissions and operational launch took place from the middle of the microfilms were sent to London, to inform about quiet Dutch garden town of Wassenaar, making town observations of tests.